Tenant Denied Pretrial Questioning of Landlord's Private Investigator

Landlord sued to evict rent-stabilized tenant for nonprimary residence. Tenant asked the court for permission to conduct pretrial questioning of landlord's private investigator, Vincent Parco. Tenant claimed that the investigator engaged in illegal acts in other nonrelated investigations and wanted to find out whether Parco engaged in illegal activity in connection with delivery of the nonrenewal notice and otherwise in tenant's case. The court ruled against tenant. Tenant made no specific claim about illegal activity in this case. The nonrenewal notice was delivered by a process server, not by the investigator. The investigator stated that he had never visited tenant's residence, and tenant offered no proof that the investigator possessed any information that tenant was entitled to.

Strategic 65, LLC v. Lippert: L&T Index No. 10334/06 (8/24/07) (Civ. Ct. NY; Wendt, J)[15-pg. doc.]